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His killing spree sparked fear throughout the city, where women were terrified to walk alone.

Gao carried out his last murder in 2002 and he went on living his life while the killer's identity remained a mystery.

But police had a major breakthrough years later in 2016 after Gao's uncle was arrested for a minor crime.

A DNA sample from the uncle was linked to evidence from the murders, with police determining that the killings must have been committed by a relative.

The courtyard of Gao's family home in China (Image: VCG via Getty Images)

Gao was arrested at the grocery store he ran in Baiyin.

He later admitted to killing his victims in the cities of Baiyin and Baotou.

In March last year, he was sentenced to death after being tried for multiple counts of homicide, rape, robbery and mutilation of corpses.

China does not release official figures for the number of people it executes every year, but human rights groups estimate that it executes more people than all other countries combined.

Amnesty International says China carried out the most executions in 2017, followed by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.

Figures for 2018 are not yet available.

Amnesty International says: "China remains the world’s top executioner – but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret; the global figure of at least 993 recorded in 2017 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China."